Archive of My Own

Chapter 5: How We Made 4 More Friends and Became Beaters (Part 1)

It is now December 2st, 2022. Kirito and Kirsten have been working hard to level up. They gained enough levels to be able to survey the floor one boss (in secret from the rest of the players) long enough to realize they cannot duo it. (Mainly because of the minions.) Kirsten thought it would be a good idea to inform everyone that it's possible to beat the boss if they constructed a raid party.

...but it seems someone beat them to the idea, as a meeting was being held by a player with the name Diabel. The two decided to attend this meeting, keeping their knowledge hidden for now. (Only a few people actually know their levels. Most have no idea that there are two players who already surpassed level 20.)

"Thank you for attending this meeting." Diabel began. "As most of you are aware, since the game has started, we have lost 2000 players."

Kirsten had a shocked expression, as she didn't know the death toll rose that much within a short amount of time.

"On Wednesday, November 23rd, a group of low level players went to raid the boss, but most didn't return."

Kirsten almost began crying, because that was the day she was able to contact the real world. She almost began to feel responsible for their deaths, until Kirito reassured her that it wasn't

"The ones who did, however, were able to get us some important intel. Intel that might make the boss possible to beat now."

Everyone in the stands began to talk to each other, expressing words like "seriously?" or "we have hope?" - Those types of comments.

"We all know that just getting to the boss room is hard. By the time we reach it, we exhaust most of our HP and healing potions."

Diabel looked around at the crowd before continuing. "No one has made it's health bar go down half it's bars... until that raid. They found out that when that mark hits, everyone got 1/2 their max HP back!"

Kirito and Kirsten didn't get 1/2 the health down to see this first hand, but from their Beta days, it wasn't impossible.

"Everyone here has come, because they want to beat the game, correct? It's our duty to beat this boss and let everyone in the Town of Beginnings know that it IS possible to beat SAO!"

Everyone cheered at his speech, including Kirsten. Kirito just smiled.

"Now let's talk strategies. We should all divide into parties of 6."

Kirsten and Kirito both looked at each other, knowing they didn't know anyone else who would join them. (Klein already had 4 friends and parties can only have up to 6.)

They then looked at their surroundings to see that most people already had their parties set. The only few who didn't have anyone seemed to be 4 people sitting in completely different areas. One had a red hood on, the other was muscular with an axe, girl with short dark brown hair, and another girl somewhat close to her with pigtails. Needing 4 for their party, they quickly went around asking.

Kirsten, who was still trying to learn Japanese, was able to speak basic enough to get an answer from the two younger girls who identified themselves as Liz and Silica. She also added them as friends to make interaction easier. Noticing Kirito was caught up with the person in the hood (later to be identified as Asuna), Kirsten got the muscled man (identified as Agil) to become another member or their temp party. It took a bit of time, but Kirito convinced Asuna.

Now with everyone in teams of 6, Diabel continued... but not before being interrupted by a non-beta player.

"Just a second!" The player ran down to the center where Diabel stood. "My name's Kibaou. I wanna say something before we take on the boss. We new players should get an apology from the Beta Testers."

Everyone began to feel uneasy.

"I heard that a good portion of them beat the first 5 floors while 2 players made it to the 10th! They know more then we do, yet they kept it a secret, allowing 2000 of us to die!"

Kirito could see the nervousness on Kirsten's face, knowing they were the 2 players in question. They kept quiet, because they noticed monster patterns were somewhat different and didn't want to cause deaths with false intel. They weren't even sure if the first floor boss changed, only seeing up to 3/8th (1 bar and 1/2) of it's health go.

Agil spoke up, telling him that the handbook was made by Beta Players. It contained everything they knew including a warning that monster patterns changed from the Beta. The book was made in order to only give accurate data, which it has done so far.

(Kirsten and Kirito were secretly contributors to the info in the book's updated issue. Since that day Kirsten woke up, she somehow was forcefully logged out 3 more times by the employees who helped create SAO. they gave her very useful data, however, they were unable to provide them with boss and floor data. On her 3rd forced log out, she made them agree not to forcefully log her out until the time they agreed on. Besides, if anyone found out she was able to get in touch with the outside, there would be chaos. Kirsten wanted to help everyone, but didn't want to be targeted in the process.)

Kibaou backed off and the meeting continued. They agreed to begin the battle in 5 days (a day after the next agreed log out time for Kirsten.)

After the meeting, Kirito invited their new friends to the room they rented to talk about their personal strategy over a nice meal.